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The Mirror-Image Argument: An Additional Reply to Johansson

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Abstract

We have argued that it is rational to have asymmetric attitudes toward prenatal and posthumous non-existence insofar as this asymmetry is a special case of a more general (and arguably rational) asymmetry in our attitudes toward past and future pleasures. Here we respond to an interesting critique of our view by Jens Johansson. We contend that his critique involves an inappropriate conflation of the time from which the relevant asymmetry emerges and the time of the badness of death.

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Notes

  1. We here use “BF*(dd)*D” because we employed “BF*(dd)*C” to present a fully counterfactualized version of the principle in Fischer and Brueckner (2014b, 20).

  2. We are indebted to helpful comments by Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. The writing of this paper was supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation, but does not necessarily reflect its views on any of the issues discussed.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

    John Martin Fischer

  2. University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Anthony Brueckner

Authors
  1. John Martin Fischer
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  2. Anthony Brueckner
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Correspondence to John Martin Fischer.

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Fischer, J.M., Brueckner, A. The Mirror-Image Argument: An Additional Reply to Johansson. J Ethics 18, 325–330 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-014-9159-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-014-9159-0

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